Note for those that purchased the prepped Our House Mini Book kit: Your download includes an inside pages template with grouped multiple options for each section of the page. You pick and choose sections by simply hiding/un-hiding layers as described below. In my opinion the easiest way to create multiple pages with this file is to make the layers you want visible, duplicate all of the groups as described below and merge the duplicated groups together to make a complete page. Then repeat the process for each page. If you need any further explanation I’d be happy to provide screen shots of this process.

Now that we know the basics of using a template, we’re going to look at a template that includes more options. Begin by opening your photo editing program like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Now let’s open the template for the inside pages of our mini book:

AHartline_OurHouse_MBTPages.psd

As you can see, the inside pages are similar to the covers we completed yesterday. Just like the cover, each template will make the front & back of one page once you print & fold it in half. If you look at the layers palette, you can see each house shape is split up into 3 sections: roof, middle floor & bottom floor. This allows you to create a dollhouse style pages showing little “rooms” of your Our House mini book.

In addition I’ve included the complete house shape in case you prefer a solid page instead of a dollhouse style. When you open the template, you can see the solid pages are hidden. I’ll show you to unhide these pages in a minute, but first let talk about your options to create all your inside pages.

Your completed mini book can have as many different inside pages as you want to create. There are a couple of different ways you can use one template to create multiple pages:

Save a new copy of the template for each page. This is the simplest method, and probably the easiest if you’re new to working with files with lots of layers. For example, starting the first page I could save a copy of my template as: AHartline_OurHouse_MBTPages_01.psd

You can also duplicate the template layers within one file and hide the layers you’re not using as you work and print. This is more advanced method that I recommend for users comfortable with your software.

If you prefer to use the solid pages instead of dollhouse style pages, you’ll need to unhide the solid pages and hide the split up templates. To do this, all you need to do is click the little eye symbol (or empty box if the layer is hidden) next to the layer in the layers palette. When you can see the eye symbol the layer is visible, when the box is empty the layer is hidden.

Now, if you want to use the second method above to create your pages, you’ll need to duplicate the template layers for each page you want to create. To duplicate a layer, make sure the layer is selected in the layers palette, then:

click the little downward pointing arrow in the upper right hand corner of the layers palette and select ‘Duplicate Layer’ from the menu; or

Layer Menu --> Duplicate Layer

Repeat as many times as needed to create as many page combinations as you want. You can hide layers you’re not using as needed.

If you do choose to duplicate the layers to create multiple pages, you’ll quickly have a lot of layers in your file. In order to more easily stay organized, you can put your layers into groups. To create a group:

click the little folder icon at the bottom of the layers palette; or

Layer Menu --> New --> Group

Now just drag and drop layers into your new group. You can rename the group just like you rename layers to make it easier to identify it in the layers palette. As you can see here, I’ve put all the layers I need to make one page in a group.

Then I can simply duplicate the group (just like duplicating a layer above) for each page I want to create. Instead of hiding layers one at a time, I can hide entire groups by clicking the eye next to the group instead of next to each layer. In this way I can easily create as many pages as I want all within one file.

You may need to recolor the divider between floors to better coordinate with your paper choices. To do this, set your foreground color to the new color you want. Then:

Use the methods above and the template skills we learned yesterday to create your inside pages. Don’t be afraid to mix-n-match the papers for a fun look! Remember there are no rules! Here are a few of my pages:

Thanks for the great tutorial...
I've gone into Pixelmator to see what I can do. I am able to copy layers, but rather than make Groups and put them in a renamed file to hide or display, I can only link them together... makes for a long layers palette, but I'm so excited to learn about the function of hiding/revealing layers in my program! In Pix, rather than little eyes on the left, I have little boxes on the right which I can check/uncheck. I learned the hard way that "merge layers" does not mean the same thing as "group layers" in your tut... thank goodness for the undo button, and that I realized the problem right away!
So now that I have learned some new things about my program, I'm off to the fun part - "gluing" on the paper!

Thanks for the great tutorial...
I've gone into Pixelmator to see what I can do. I am able to copy layers, but rather than make Groups and put them in a renamed file to hide or display, I can only link them together... makes for a long layers palette, but I'm so excited to learn about the function of hiding/revealing layers in my program! In Pix, rather than little eyes on the left, I have little boxes on the right which I can check/uncheck. I learned the hard way that "merge layers" does not mean the same thing as "group layers" in your tut... thank goodness for the undo button, and that I realized the problem right away!
So now that I have learned some new things about my program, I'm off to the fun part - "gluing" on the paper!

Oh thanks for the info! That kind of feedback really helps me when I'm developing future classes. Yes, I frequently have many many layers in my files. It works fine not to group them so long as they're labeled and you can tell what you're looking at. So glad you caught that merge/group difference early enough to undo! Undo has saved me so many times LOL.

i have pse5 so i can't group layers. so instead, i placed the papers where i wanted (hiding anything i didn't want seen) and then i used alt+shift+ctrl+e on a new layer to stamp the visible stuff onto the new layer. i re-named the stamped layer with the page numbers for when i print. then i hid the merged layer, and repeated the process for the next pages. this way i can have all my pages in the one file. they're not editable anymore, but that's okay for me.

Ok, so as I'm working on these pages, it occurs to me... "As I finish masking these papers onto my template, can I just go ahead and merge them?" Or will we need to tuck something under a paper layer later in the class?

Ok, so as I'm working on these pages, it occurs to me... "As I finish masking these papers onto my template, can I just go ahead and merge them?" Or will we need to tuck something under a paper layer later in the class?

Yes, you can go ahead and merge them. As far as my instructions go you won't need to put anything underneath them. Tomorrow we'll be scrapping on them, but I would consider these your bottom layer (at least I did in my mini book).

i have pse5 so i can't group layers. so instead, i placed the papers where i wanted (hiding anything i didn't want seen) and then i used alt+shift+ctrl+e on a new layer to stamp the visible stuff onto the new layer. i re-named the stamped layer with the page numbers for when i print. then i hid the merged layer, and repeated the process for the next pages. this way i can have all my pages in the one file. they're not editable anymore, but that's okay for me.

Excellent job adapting the instructions and thanks for the info! Yes, I think it's totally fine to merge them once you've arranged everything.

Your finished pages look so pretty and I like how included both dollhouse style and complete house pages!

Thanks; all done! Now I'm trying to figure out how Trickletime got all four images together for uploading, so I don't have to do all of mine individually!

I would duplicate my finished pages, hide all other layers, resize the duplicated copies to about 25%, then arrange on the screen for display. I recommend duplicating them first just in case. You don't want to accidentally save or anything and mess up your originals.

Thanks; all done! Now I'm trying to figure out how Trickletime got all four images together for uploading, so I don't have to do all of mine individually!

i just made a standard new document and dragged the final layers there. then i resized and re-arranged them, and saved the way i do for challenges. it seemed the easiest way for me. and i still have my original to use in later steps.

I can hardly wait to get started! I am anxiously awaiting for my main computer to be fixed. this computer doesn't have enough ram.Oh how I hope it is tomorrow! I don't want to get too far behind. this looks like such a fun project

Hi Angel,
I wanted to let you know that I am here and I've downloaded everything. I'm going to be a little behind everyone,because my pain level has been up for the past few days and today, so I really don't get to scrap very much when the pain level goes up to high. I wanted to reasure you though that I'm going to do this and I am extremely excited about the project! Also,I am very thankful that you allowed this hybrid class and template to be free. I am still learning. I will be putting this mini album together through the png files,since I don't have the more popular design program. Thank you for all of your effort. I am disppointed that the chronic pain is getting in the way of this,but I will finish.
Thanks for all of your effort!

Hi Angel,
I wanted to let you know that I am here and I've downloaded everything. I'm going to be a little behind everyone,because my pain level has been up for the past few days and today, so I really don't get to scrap very much when the pain level goes up to high. I wanted to reasure you though that I'm going to do this and I am extremely excited about the project! Also,I am very thankful that you allowed this hybrid class and template to be free. I am still learning. I will be putting this mini album together through the png files,since I don't have the more popular design program. Thank you for all of your effort. I am disppointed that the chronic pain is getting in the way of this,but I will finish.
Thanks for all of your effort!

Hi Marci,
Oh I'm so sorry to hear you're not feeling well! I know it comes and goes, and I hope it goes quickly this time! And don't worry at all! I'm looking forward to seeing your project when you're feeling better. Glad you're enjoying the class. I hope to do a variety of them in the future.

My computer got fixed today & I am catching up on the lessons. I use PSE7 & do not have the option to click on menu>new>group. Is there a workaround to making groups?

No, PSE doesn't currently support layer groups (I just looked up the current version). There's not really another direct way to do group. You can make sure to arrange your layers in order in the layers palette and make sure they're labeled clearly.

Also, another option would be to clip all your embellishments to the bottom house shaped page we create previously. You would do this just like we clipped paper to our template, just don't merge when you're done. If you clip everything for one page to the bottom house layer, you can hide the entire group with one click of the eye next to that bottom layer. I often clip like this even when nothing I'm working with hangs outside of the borders of my bottom layer simply because it makes hiding & unhiding a snap. HTH!

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